


Become One Mouth With Song

by jesterlady



Category: Charmed
Genre: Drama, Episode Related, Episode Tag, Episode: s07e16 The Seven Year Witch, F/M, Hashing Out the Past, One Shot, Romance, Season/Series 07
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-07-03
Updated: 2014-07-03
Packaged: 2018-02-07 06:54:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,772
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1889181
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jesterlady/pseuds/jesterlady
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Piper reduxes her almost dying experience involving Cole with Leo after the events of the Seven Year Witch.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Become One Mouth With Song

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I don't own Charmed. The title is from Charles Hadden Spurgeon.

Piper's not an optimist. Granted, that's not exactly a shock, either to herself or anyone that knows her. It's also true that she can have faith. Faith in her sisters, faith in her husband, faith in her magic. But, sooner or later, something always happens to strip that faith away from her and she has to start the arduous process of rebuilding again. Frankly, she's getting sick of it.

Something's different this time, something that she doesn't understand. The underlying fear of losing is still there, but there's a new awareness of how strong she is, how strong they are. She thinks it has to do with the situation, the severity of what had happened, or maybe it's the trauma of nearly dying, or maybe the really hard pep talk she'd gotten in a cosmic void.

She hopes it's not the last one.

Either way she's sitting in her bed and she can hear her babies softly breathing through the monitor and her husband is lying beside her and he can't leave her ever again. It feels a bit like normal.

"What are you thinking about?" Leo asks her and her fingers lightly trace the edges of the cuts on his face.

"Life as we know it," she says.

"What happened today?" he asks. "I've never felt so much love coming from you. Not even when you healed me before."

"You remember that coach I was telling you about?"

He nods.

"Well, when I fainted I wasn't gone. I was just in the house, but my body was still lying on the floor and…Cole was there." Leo's eyes widen but he doesn't say anything. "It's okay, he was there to help."

"I don't understand."

"Believe me, I don't either. But he basically told me that he was there to help us get back together. He told me how to reach you."

"But why would he do that? Was there something he got out of it?"

"A happy Phoebe," Piper says slowly.

Leo looks confused and she doesn't blame him so she explains everything to him, exactly what had happened, and everything Cole had said. It's helping her make sense of it, too, as she explains it.

"It's not a surprise that he loves her," Leo says at the end.

"No, but he hurt her so badly."

"It's easy to hurt the people you love," he says and closes his eyes and she can feel his pain as clearly as if it were her own.

She puts her hand on his cheek.

"Look at me, Leo, that's the past. You can't leave now, you can't hurt me again."

"Normal husbands hurt their wives all the time," he whispers.

"Normal wives hurt their husbands," she whispers back. "We're gonna have rough times, but you don't get to drag that one out of the closet anymore and neither do I. That ended when Chris- Anyway…we're talking about Cole's sins, not yours."

"I feel bad for him," he says, letting her lead him away from his guilt. "Do you think that's wrong?"

"I might have yesterday," she says, "but I don't now."

"What changed exactly?"

She muses on that for a minute because she's not sure. What she does know is that she understands Cole's side of it more.

"What I know now is how much he loves Phoebe unconditionally. Before it always seemed like there was a string attached, but he had nothing to gain this time. Nothing but her happiness."

"I always believed that," he says, running his fingers through her hair almost absent-mindedly. "Right before Prue died and before they got married, they were just like we were."

"And that's what gets to me now," she says. "If only we'd seen what had happened. It should have been obvious the Source's power would have to go somewhere. Cole was the only option. He did that to save our lives, to save your life, and all he got in return was demonic possession up the wazoo."

"What exactly is a wazoo?" Leo asks, a grin cracking the somber look on his face.

She loves his smile.

"You tell me, you're the one older than dirt."

"You're the one married to me," he says, kissing her forehead.

"Yes, I am, and I get to stay that way, thanks to Cole."

"I don't know why we didn't see," Leo tells her sadly. "I wish we had. Maybe we could have saved him. It's not like he could tell us what was happening."

"But he did try," Piper says. "I mean, he tried to get the wizard to strip him of his powers. He changed the Source. I know neither of us are total experts on demonology, but we know that's huge. We know it's practically impossible."

Leo closes his eyes for a minute and she can practically picture him running through all the vast lore in his head. That's something he hasn't lost and she's suddenly grateful he didn't have to give up absolutely everything for her.

"Cole's the only one I know of. He was going to sacrifice it all for her and then…"

"Then Phoebe sabotaged herself," she finishes and it hurts her to say it.

"Shouldn't we have given him more of a break after that?" he asks musingly.

"He dug his own grave after that," she says. "I could have forgiven the things he did before, but then he gave in to the Source and it was Cole that we vanquished. And Cole again that we somehow vanquished in that other world that Paige assures me is real."

"That's weird, right?" he asks.

"Totally," she agrees.

"But he's gone now. In either world."

"But he lingers. He's still out there, loving her, and they're connected. There was a moment when Phoebe really looked at where he was standing and it was almost like she could see him. If love is as transcendent as Drake keeps assuring us, then their love still lives even when Cole doesn't."

"I never knew you to be so poetic," he says, running his hand up her arm.

"I have my moments," she says, scooting closer to him, "and I believe in love today. It's not easy, but I do."

"I've always believed in love," he says. "It's practically a Whitelighter job requirement. But it was an abstract love, a blanket love. This love of ours, it's different, it's unique. Phoebe and Cole may love, but theirs can't even begin to be compared to ours. It's forever and that doesn't change no matter how many powers I do or don't have. I get to be with you. That's all the power I need."

"I hope our sons don't get your sappy speech-making ability," she tells him without any venom because she secretly loves and is inspired by it.

"Well, I hope they don't get your amazing ability to cut someone's point in half," he tells her, rubbing his nose against hers.

"They'll get something from each of us," she says.

"Something wonderful, I hope," he says.

"Hey, it's us," she says. "That's a given."

They're quiet for a moment and she sighs, wrapped up in him and content.

"What now?" he asks softly.

"I'm glad I've got you. I want Phoebe to be happy with all of my heart and I wish Cole could have done that for her, that we could change things, but I can't deny being happy that I get you. That you aren't the one who left or died."

"I know that," he says.

"Cole said you and he were a lot alike and it's true in a way. I was upset with him for saying it, it even made me feel guilty for the past, but I can't deny that Cole knows us, too, not just Phoebe. You're both men who fit with a Halliwell woman, but you did it right. So, thanks for that."

"I don't know what for, but you're welcome."

"My only question is do I tell Phoebe? Do I let her know I saw Cole again?"

Leo thinks for a minute and then shakes his head.

"What good would it do?"

"Probably none."

"It will just reopen old wounds and Drake helped her to move past those. I think the dead should stay buried. I hope somehow it helps Cole to know that we both at least think better of him. That we thank him. That we – I – forgive him."

"Hey, I forgave him first," she says.

"You're so competitive," he says and then stops her rejoinder with a kiss.

She really doesn't mind at all because she rather likes kissing him. His mouth works against hers in a way that is urgent but takes its time. He knows all the right buttons to push and she knows exactly when to freeze him. She will miss the orbing bit though. It was convenient for more things than just when you were running late for an appointment.

Still, his fingers are scattered over her skin, sending her nerve endings sensations that she can't ignore and it's good. She's forgotten him, forgotten this, and she wants to remember it all. Freeze it in her mind the same way she can freeze his body. But she just lets it happen as he slowly undresses her and she feels her way up under his shirt.

His mouth moves everywhere and she knows so much that this is right, that her faith in this is stronger than her fears and should be so. That the two of them are epic and unmatched and the very idea of him choosing the Elders over her is laughable. The two of them are connected and she doesn't just mean like the very pleasant way he's connected to her now. It's so much more than that.

She tilts her head back as his tongue works wonders on her neck and the moan that comes out of her throat makes him redouble his efforts. His thoroughness is complete and her body is on fire and his fingers are everywhere and her hands grasp his hair and she never ever wants to lose this feeling.

She stays wrapped around him all night and later, hours later, she sleepily asks him if it's hard, being part of this love, if being the beacon and example is a burden. If it's maybe not fair that they are set up so high that it's so easy for them to fall so low.

"It's a privilege," he says and she might not always agree, but she does right now.

She falls asleep in Leo's arms, not exactly an optimist, but with faith.


End file.
